Gluten Free Lemon, Vanilla, and Almond Ghriba

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Moroccan pastries, like ghriba, are small, bite size gems of deliciousness. Most have nuts, usually almonds, honey, and powdered sugar. Sadly, the majority also have wheat making them off-limits for us. Ramadan is right around the corner and I have been re-making all of our favorite treats into gluten-free replicas. Are you ready for a ghriba-a-palooza? I’ve created four new ghriba recipes that I’ll be sharing over the next few days. I think you’ll have a hard time choosing your favorite!

What is a ghriba?

Ghriba are one of the most well known Moroccan cookies. They are easily identified because of their cracked surface – a must in ghriba making. They tend to be a bit crunchy on the outside but chewy inside. Most of the time they’re made with almonds, but can be made with walnuts, peanuts, really any kind of nut. When I started developing a recipe for gluten-free ghriba I first looked to traditional recipes. There are some gluten-free recipes that exist but I find it easier to try and convert from a recipe with gluten to gluten-free. The problem here was there are a lot of different ways people make ghriba! Some used butter, some oil. Some caster sugar, and some powdered sugar. Some used semolina, or white flour, or coconut. Some people make ghriba and put jam in them, like thumbprint cookies. Basically there was no real base recipe to start from. Maybe that’s a good thing?

What I Made

I came up with four new kinds of ghriba – all of them are gluten free.

Today I’m sharing the recipe I created for Lemon Vanilla Almond Ghriba. I promise to share my recipes for all of the others, if you’re following me on Facebook or subscribe for updates (sign up is on the right sidebar), you’ll know as soon as they’re up!

Lemon Vanilla Almond Ghriba

Yield: 20-24 cookies

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Total Time: 47 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups almond flour

1/2 c granulated sugar

1 tsp baking powder

3 Tbsp liquid from preserved lemon (if you don't have this, the zest of 1 lemon will work)

4 Tbsp room temperature butter

1 tsp vanilla extract

4 egg yolks

Whole blanced almonds to top cookies

powdered sugar to coat cookies

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In a large bowl combine almond flour, granulated sugar, and baking powder.

My cousin had baked those once, one fine rainy Sunday. We have a huge family in France so when something is baked it’s over in less then 2 minutes ( I am not joking). Now that was ages ago and I had completely forgotten about them. So glad I rediscovered them, I never knew they were Moroccan and your version is even gluten free Amanda. =)

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Hello!

Amanda is a freelance writer, entrepreneur, speaker, and hungry world traveler behind this site that has been helping curious, food-loving travelers plan experiences around Morocco and the world for the past 15 years.